Deja Vu!
By David Pickles

In our beloved sport, it's not often one can use the term "Deja Vu" as each meeting or event is unique over the course of a season.

But, one thing struck me recently with the announcement of the opening of Northampton aka the old Brafield which operated sporadically in the 1950's and 1960's.

Back in 1963 the then top-flight was called the National League, the original league from way back in the 1930's which at one time in the late 40's and early 50's encompassed three divisions during the heyday of speedway.

The sport was rocked by the announcement that Southampton (home of Barry Briggs and Bjorn Knutsson) was to close at the end of the season due to redevelopment.

The top flight promoters back then were a very powerful group of individuals, notably led by the two most powerful of all, in Charles Ochiltree (Coventry) and Ronnie Greene (Wimbledon). An initial meeting of the bosses led to an agreement to try and find another track for the 1964 season to keep the National League number at 7.

Led by Ochiltree (it was rumoured at the time that Coventry were putting up the bulk of the funding), it was agreed that they would install a promoter and re-open West Ham the following April. The promoter they chose was England's first world champion (1949) Tommy Price, who won the final with a superb 15 point maximum.

Discussions with the relevant greyhound authorities were smooth and the Hammers opened on April 7, 1964 with a match against Wimbledon witnessed by a crowd of between 15-20,000.

Fast forward 62 years.

Birmingham was lost to the sport at the end of the 2025 season due to (again) redevelopment. This time the top-flight only consisted of 6 teams and the prospect of running with 5 was deemed virtually impossible. So, the promoters hands were forced once again into finding a replacement team. For some reason unlike 1963 when the Southampton/West Ham story was regularly covered in the Speedway Star, this time round we've not been kept as informed and it was only early in the new year that rumours surfaced of a team in Northampton. This, as we know, has now been confirmed but the similarities are striking - the loss of a club due to redevelopment, the league numbers sinking to an unsustainable level and the promoters having to band together to get the show on the road at another venue to keep the top league afloat.

I wish them all the luck in the world with the new venture but behind the gloss and glamour of a "new" team opening (it was called Brafield in the 1950's) lies, in my view, a deep malaise within the sport, one which I'm fearful has passed the tipping point.

The news that TNT Sport have now abandoned domestic meetings only goes to show the depth of the recession now hitting our once major sport.

This article was first published on 5th April 2026